Slashdot Mirror
Our New Pearl Harbor
Eerily, the scene invokes disaster movies -- a number of which have actually shown the World Trade Center towers being blown up. Staring across the harbor on this gorgeous day, it takes a few seconds to realize that this isn't the evocation of something new and horrible, but the real thing, our own Pearl Harbor, perhaps even worse, since it struck us closer to home and reminded us all how technology can bring us all nose-to-nose with war in seconds, and there are no real barriers between people willing to use it in evil ways and us. Technology allows us to see the building collapse before the reporters even know what has happened. We have to try and make sense of it ourselves.
The silence is stunning, unprecedented for mid-morning, mid-week anywhere near Manhattan island. Everyone is in shock. Stories, malls, business are closing, their workers crying, distracted, unsure of how to behave.
Technology turns planes into weapons. It tracks aircraft hundreds of miles away. It brings us instant and horrific images. It sends us to e-mail, telephones and cell phones to spread news, facts, rumors and stories.
We are both shocked and oddly prepared. Sci-fi and other forms of popular culture have been preparing us for this kind of Techno-Armageddon for years. Technology can do all sorts of amazing things, but it can't protect us from a handful of determined people. We've never seen anything like it, yet in a strange way we have thought of it for years.
Standing over the harbor, I did something I haven't done in 20 years. I dropped to my knees -- following the lead of a bunch of strangers -- and prayed. I have a bunch of friends in somewhere in that Techno-Armageddon, and just wanted to post these thoughts. If anybody wants to post their own, hopefully here's a good place.
From a site that seems to be working well:
:-(
World Leaders react -- "The following are reactions from around the world to the disasters at New York's World Trade Centre and the Pentagon."
Related Links -- US Gov't, US Military, NYC, Airlines, and Anti-Terrorism Resources.
Who Dunnit -- the BBC "Within minutes of the horrific chain of events unfolding at the World Trade Center, information began emerging suggesting it was not a terrible accident but a terrorist attack."
World Shock -- BBC "The attacks on New York and Washington have brought swift reactions of horror and condemnation from around the world."
Notable quotable: "But Iraqi television played a patriotic song that begins "Down with America!" as it showed the World Trade Center's towers falling, The Associated Press news agency reported."
America has made a permanent enemy of Iraq. I can't imagine how that will ever be changed.
Also worth noting that many mid-East leaders of all stripes and colours are denouncing this terrorist act.
Don't paint all the mid-East with one brush. This terrorist attack was the action of a very, very small radical group that is roundly despised by many mid-East civilians.
The more I watch this on television, the less real it becomes. Repetition = numb.
--
Don't like it? Respond with words, not karma.
My heart goes out to your friends families, and to you John. To all the people who have, or will lose someone do to this. I truely feel for you all.
Lets not forget evil is evil and technology has nothing to do with that fact. It's just the means to an end for the evil.
I have heard first and second-hand accounts that the whole World Trade Center complex began evacuating after the 1st plane hit. A friend was on th 61st floor of tower 1, was asked to evacuate, was in the stairwell when the 2nd plane hit. He made it out ok. I just heard secondhand reports of people as high up as th 88th floor of tower 1 getting out ok. My friend's father (staying here tonight) was across the street in front of Deutsche Bank when the 2nd plane hit. He hid behind the big pillars holding up the balcony to avoid the debris and then got as far away from the towers as possible.
Unfortunately, it looks like there were hundreds of people on the ground by the towers watching the fires burn, both when the 2nd plane hit... and when the 1st tower fell.
I've been listing my friends who make it out safe on my website, as well as adding an information I get from 1st and 2nd hand accounts of people who were there. All said it was gruesome, even after just the 1st plane hit. Pictures and a live webcam are on my site. SOMEONE PLEASE MIRROR the terrorism and webcam subsite so I don't get Slashdotted.
http://johnhaller.com/jh/terrorist/
I will also be creating a site tonight to try and help people get in touch and find people affected by this. I will post more when I have it up.
Best wishes for all everyone knows and loves to make it home safe.
Portable versions of Firefox, GIMP, LibreOffice, etc
i have composed a buisness directory from a cached copy of http://www.onisland.com/wtc/bizdir/ and put it on my host here's the 583K HTML file (not recommended) http://janitor61.home.mindspring.com/list/bdir.htm
here's a 24K ZIP file (recommended)
http://janitor61.home.mindspring.com/list/bdir.zip
mindspring will have my head for this
my apologies if this has been posted in another form
This website is meant for everyone who is caught in NYC and need to communicate their families/ friends that they are alive and ok.
It is said that cell phones are unusable, so people can post their names to make a list of survivors.
Google's front page now contains links to a few major news sites, along with links to their own mirrors of those sites. If you're trying to access a given news organization's reports on recent events, I suggest checking Google for a mirrored link.
People went from amazement to shock, to anger. To put the Television on and see those kids and adults jumping around for joy that someone had struck such a blow. He we were standing on the Hudson thinking how awful it was, watching the towers fall and seeing someone else on the other side of the world jumping for joy.
I really hope that we as a nation take the correct next step, what has happend is horrible but what could come because of it chills me to the bones. On one side I want to strike back, on the other I am scared straigh shitless of what will come from the actions that are sure to follow. Our world has changed, I mean mine and everyone else. Because where you want to see it or not this is going to have an impact on all of us, not just the US. Get ready, because someone is poking the sleeping giant and I fear what will happen.
WTC pictures from the Hudson
Neck_of_the_Woods
#/usr/local/surf/glassy/overhead
"Did you know that President Bush repealed a law last year that outlawed the hunting and execution of terrorist leaders? I will be watching to see what happens."
That would be quite a feat, since it means that President Bush has not only invented a time machine and made himself the President a couple months early, but also managed to remove legislative capabilites from Congress and vest them in himself.
Cambridge/Boston Update
- Both the AA and UA planes that hit the WTC came from Boston Logan and bound for LA
- 56 and 81 passengers per plane
- AA's family response number is 1-800-245-0999, UA's number is 1-800-932-8555
- The pilot and crew of one of the planes were from the Boston area
- Both planes stayed overnight in Logan airport the night before
- Families of passengers can go to the Hyatt where an emergency center is being set up
- CTO and co-founder of Akamai on one plane
- Donate blood at Beth Israel, or 25 Stuart St, or other centers. Appointments not needed, but expect long lines. Don't hesitate to give tomorrow or later this week.
- Cellular 911 seeing major congestion problems, PLEASE DON'T USE CELLULAR 911 UNLESS ABOSOLUTELY NECCESARY
- Logan Airport was surprised about the incident - claims to have known anything only after crash
- Tall buildings evacuated, including Hancock and Prudential
- Federal employees sent home
- Most non-critical city employees sent home
- Many colleges closing
- Most schools, including after-school programs, not closed
- T rides for free, extra capacity hauled out to accomidate people going home
- Northeast Amtrack shut down, including Boston-DC
- 9th district primary elections going on as scheduled
- MIT not cancelling classes, but attendance is optional, cars not allowed to enter inside campus, vigil at 5pm in front of Student Center
- No major police presense or activities (yet)
- Otherwise a nice day, sunny and a good wind. Perfect day for sailing if I weren't feeling so bad. People crying and running around the corridors. Quiet everywhere. Please don't rush to conclusions and bomb anybody until somebody takes claim and it can be substantiated. Note that Taliban, Hamas, DFLP, Jihad, and Arafat have explicitely denied involvement.
patiwat@NOSPAM.mit.edu
#1467 - 1472 were taken before the second tower collapsed.
#1473 - 1474 is the National Guard deployed on Lexington Ave.
#1775 - 1746 are people trying to get out of Manhattan waiting at a bus stop.
#1477 - 1490 is lower Manhattan at 3pm.
#1491 - 1496 is two blocks from the world trade center at 3pm.
#1497 is a fire boat on the Hudson river.
#1499 - 1503 is the world trade center an surrounding buildings
#1505 is a fire truck damaged by the collapse 2 blocks away from the WTC.
#1507 - 1510 is the WTC.
#1511 - 1512 is a neighboring building.
#1513 - 1515 is the surrounding area to the WTC.
Everyone is free to forward these pictures, and use them without permission. Mirrors are welcome. --Terry
Here's his post copied for your convience. Please mod him up.
-Dave
When someone else has sworn to kill you, sitting around and trying to be nice is stupid. Kill them first. Or are you not paying attention to what those vermin are preaching in their newspapers, television programs, and mosques? Imagine a TV show for children which told kids how sweet the blood of the infidels smells. Or, if you'd like, move to the West Bank and watch it yourself.
They started the fight. It's time to end it.
-jon
Remember Amalek.
First off - my previous post had 2 errors, 'Debt of Honour' was Clancey's book, and yes, GWB was not in power last year, my apologies in writing at too fevered a pitch.
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Now, my report regarding the escorted landing of two 747's at Whitehorse International Airport:
11:42am A Korean Airlines cargo 747-400 landed using every inch of available runway
11:50am We spotted another inbound jet
11:52am A Korea Airlines passenger 747 landed coming down just 15 feet above the fence....an awesome and scary sight from only 100 feet away. 3 F-18's (hard to say, they were pretty high up) escorted them in and continued to circle Whitehorse's airspace.
Luckily Whitehorse's runway had just been extended to facilitate 747's last year.
Emergency vehicles kept their distance from both planes, the passenger plane having taxied back to the north end of the runway, as far away from the terminal as possible.
A gray truck approached the passenger plane, dispersing ground personnel to chalk the wheels, then fell in behind an officer wielding a long barreled weapon and backed up behind the officer to the truck and departed the scene
A ramp was brought to the aircraft but no one left for about 20 minutes (at 12:36pm) when a single male came down and walked towards the police vehicles (we could hear the occasional word from a police loudspeaker) he made it about half way when he was obviously ordered to lift his shirt up, turn around, lift his pant legs, then he removed the shirt completely, holding it over his head while continuing to walk towards the vehicles. People with binoculars were able to see several FBI jackets amongst the police. There was a lear jet nearby which was probably used to get the FBI here from Alaska (since as far as I know we don't have any resident FBI in Yukon).
At 12:43pm we were ordered away from the area by the RCMP. Apparently for 'our own safety' - we were on crown land, outside the airport's perimeter fence.
There is the possibility that we may be receiving up to 10 planes, but I have no idea where they could park them.
Further information available at:
http://www.canoe.ca/MoneyNews/sept11_yukon-dow.
http://www.canoe.ca/CNEWSWorldTrade0109/11_whit
http://cbc.ca/
So, basically you think we should fight fire with fire. We should become terrorists ourselves in order to punish those who committed this act. In the end, we will end up locked in a battle to the death with the terrorists responsible for today's attacks, and probably others as well. We will have no moral justification for our acts other than the same justifications that the terrorists of the world normally give. This was not the first stone to be thrown. This is just a bigger stone than usual. Most Americans don't even know what the hell our country does overseas or how our actions affect the people of other countries. Most people don't seem to really care. Is it any surprise that we've made enemies such as this?
It's not enough to bash in heads, you've got to bash in minds. - Captain Hammer
Speaking of three towers, building 7 in the World Trade Complex just collapsed.
According to CNN, they were owned by New York-based Larry Silverstein Properties and Los Angeles-based Westfield America Properties.
See this article.
I'm writing this response from a desk within the NOC of the Networld+Interop show in Atlanta, GA.
On opening day of what is still a very popular (and large) trade show, attendance was shockingly, and understandably, low. The CNN building directly across the street stood empty, evacuated against the remote possibility that it might be a target.
Streaming media products were quickly retooled and retasked. Clusters of stunned attendees and staff gathered around state-of-the-art flat panels and projection screens as today's events progressed. The 2x4 edge-to-edge video wall within the NOC has been displaying streaming media and television all day, workstation monitors spun to face outward so passerby's can have other places to view.
By 1 pm, Interop team volunteers were paired with Event staff to canvass the show floors to advise exhibitors that we'd be closing the show floor early to allow people to depart where possible. In between, people are emailing, messaging, calling, checking on loved ones. As I write this, Interop team members are still clustered within the I-Labs area, watching live newsfeeds streamed over the grid.
The shock of the incident is incredible. This is the kind of tragedy you see in movies and pray never happens. During one of a couple meetings today, someone present for the Oklahoma City bombing brought up a powerful notion: The victims of these tragedies, and the people they leave behind, need to know there is support for them, that people care. I consider myself to be a fairly thick skinned individual, and this event has struck me to the core.
We, as a chorus, are the voice of the world. Take the time to show your support. Resist the kneejerk response to lash out in anger. Even more, demolish the impulse to turn this into a laughing matter.
Allow me a brief moment to express some outrage: Within hours of the initial incident, the remains of the WTC were placed for auction on eBay. I'm sure someone thought it was funny. I'm sure some people still think it's funny. I hope those of you who do mention it in mixed company, and have to face down the family member of a victim of today's incredible tragedy.
- billn
So, what are the muslim authorities doing to get rid of that image-breaking Ben Laden???
Well, they've expelled him so far from Saudi Arabia and Sudan ...